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Care Opinion

More inclusive video calls

Posted By plutoez66

"More inclusive video calls"

About: Victoria Hospital / Rheumatology

(as a service user),

I was sent a Video Call appointment with the rheumatology dept but as I am profoundly deaf and need a BSL interpreter included in the call and there was no mention of an interpreter being included so I had to ask someone to make a phone call to rheumatic dept to ask if interpreter was included but they had no idea and asked me to call back in a couple of days. Well I have attended that hospital for a while they know I am deaf, so I feel they should have put on my notes that the patient is deaf so will need an interpreter. So what actually happens is the Video call is cancelled to a later date until they find an interpreter - after waiting months for this one. 

Hopefully you can do something about this problem.

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Responses

Response from Paula Dowie, Advanced Physiotherapist, Rheumatology, NHS Fife 3 years ago
Paula Dowie
Advanced Physiotherapist, Rheumatology,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 11/03/2021 at 16:43
Published on Care Opinion at 21:05

picture of Paula Dowie

Dear plutoez66,

Thank you very much for taking the time to post on care opinion and provide this useful feedback. I am very sorry to hear that a BSL interpreter was not organised for your near me appointment and that this has caused a delay in your care.

I would really like to help you resolve this problem and prevent this happening again. Could you please email the rheumatology enquiries address with your contact details so that we can look into this for you and arrange a BSL interpreter to discuss this with you? If you would like to do this please email fife.rheumatologyenquiries@nhs.scot for the attention of Paula Dowie. I look forward to hopefully hearing from you and arranging a conversation with you soon.

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Response from Dianne Williamson, Equality & Human Rights Lead, Patient Relations, NHS Fife 3 years ago
Dianne Williamson
Equality & Human Rights Lead, Patient Relations,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 12/03/2021 at 11:42
Published on Care Opinion at 12:34

picture of Dianne Williamson

Hello plutoez66,

Thank you for giving us details of your experience recently and I'm sorry that your communication needs were not met. I also apologise for the fact that you had to make enquiries to us about interpreting provision for your appointment. It is our responsibility to reassure patients we have interpreting in place for their appointment. I have re circulated all the information about interpreting services to our Rheumatology colleagues and have also highlighted that there is an option to use a video link via our interpreting on wheels devices which are located close to them. If I can help with anything further please let me know, Dianne

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Update posted by plutoez66 (a service user)

That would be very helpful but also if every deaf person had a message on their history in large letters stating they are deaf and need a BSL Interpreter they would not need to worry if there is going to be an interpreter. As getting appointments WITHOUT any messages saying there will be an interpreter to help that is very worrying as most deaf people don’t know how to get back to the clinic to tell them they need one.

Response from Dianne Williamson, Equality & Human Rights Lead, Patient Relations, NHS Fife 3 years ago
Dianne Williamson
Equality & Human Rights Lead, Patient Relations,
NHS Fife

Submitted on 15/03/2021 at 09:46
Published on Care Opinion at 14:34

picture of Dianne Williamson

Hello plutoez66,

thank you for your correspondence. This is a very important point to raise and understand that it can be worrying for you to know if there will be an interpreter or not at your appointment. We will continue to improve the ways we are able to identify patient communication needs, prior to their appointments, and make improvements to the documentation of those needs, for example, we will inform patient records departments (for all their paperwork and patient history) as well as updating the patient electronic health systems with details of the support required. We would encourage patients to register with our text messaging service, which they can use to send us a text to ask for reassurance about their appointments and ask if an interpreter has been booked. Please let me know if you would like further details. I am always keen to hear more about how we can improve the way we provide interpreting so if you have any further suggestions I would be really pleased to hear from you. Thank you again, Dianne

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